Pages in this set

Page 1

AGGRESSION

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (SLT)
Bandura and Walters suggests that we learn by observing others e.g aggressive
behaviour.
Biological make up creates a potential for aggression the actual expression of
aggression is learnt.

OBSERVATION
Children learn aggressive behaviour through observing then imitating the
behaviour.
Children also learn about the consequences…

Page 2

-Phillips: daily homicide rates in the US almost always increased in the week
following a major boxing match suggesting viewers were imitating the boxers.
(SLT is also apparent in adults)
-Unlike operant conditioning SLT can explain aggressive behaviour when there is
no direct reinforicement. Even though the aggressive group saw…

Page 3

The faceless crowd: Mullen: analysed newspaper cuttings of 60 lynching's in the
US. Found that the more people in the mob the greater the aggressive behaviour
to the victim.
Mann: The baiting crowd. 21 suicide leaps US. 10 of the 21 had a crowd to watch
them jump and urged…

Page 4

AO2
-evidence to support that peer violence is used to relieve the deprivation
imposed by institutional cultures such as prisons. Overcrowding, lack of privacy
influences violence,
-Individual differences: not all black/white people can be classed as this.
-Culture bias: studies only done in US so cannot generalise other countries.
-Gender…

Page 5

Mann et al: gave 35 healthy people dexfenfluramine (reduces levels of serotonin).
Using questionnaires found that the drug caused MEN to become violent and
aggressive.

AO2
-Evidence of serotonin in aggressive behaviour in a study of monkeys. Diets with
high levels of serotonin decreased their aggressive behaviour. (non human
animals…

Page 6

Cortisol appears to have a mediating effect on other aggression linked hormones
such as testosterone maybe as it increases anxiety.
High levels of cortisol increase testos levels therefore increase aggressive
behaviour.
Cortisol increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour but does not play a
major part like testos

AO2
-Inconclusive research…

Page 7

not mistreated did not have aggressive traits. Therefore the gene and
environment must play a role for the gene to be a contributing factor.

AO2
-It is difficult to establish genetic contributions to aggressive behaviour for the
following reasons
-More than 1 gene usually contributes to a specific behaviour
-As…

Page 8

UXOROCIDE (wife-killing)
Daly and Wilson: death of the partner from physical violence may be an
unintended outcome of an evolutionary adaption that was used for control
rather than death.

AO2
-Individual differences- not all males are violent towards their wives
-Gender bias- research only done on males where women can…

Page 9

Costly signalling theory: Sosis: believes that inherent costs of religious rituals are
the crucial feature that contributes to the success of religion and natural
selection would have favoured their development.
Can promote cooperation in a group

AO2
-religious rituals the more painful they are correlates with the most members
-individual…